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(often involved) games, to have physical experiences, and in general to make
existence interesting. Homo sapiens has been a possessed species for a very
long time, as have suitable species on many other worlds. By contrast, most
biological species are not possessed.
*Instead of psychome, I could have used the more descriptive term spirit
pool, specifying that the animal mind is a function of it. I ve coined and
use the term psychome (psyche = spirit or mind; ome = mass, body or group),
analogous to biome, because the term spirit carries too much semantic luggage
for many people. Back
THE OGRE AS A HYPNOCONDITIONED SOLDIER
From -- Behavioral Modification on
Post-Plague Earth, by Shigeru Ruiz. Pages 47-64, in Modern Perspectives on
the Psyche and the Mind, Viljo Tabayoyon, ed. University Press, A.C. 816.
. . . With regard to ogres as hypnoconditoned warriors, Songtsan Gampo seems
to have seen more potentials and fewer limitations than were actually there,
at least given the state of the art.
First, he had hypnoconditioned his ogres as if they were simply hairy people.
That was not the case. If you condition a man to absolute loyalty, he will
often be loyal regardless of risk to life. This is because the true psyche is
innately a game-playing unit, and many will stay with the game despite extreme
danger. On the other hand, an intelligence based on the psychome -- that is,
one without a true psyche -- will rarely do so, with the exception of the
long-domesticated Canis familiaris, the domestic dog. The Yunnan ogre operates
on the basic imperative SURVIVE! It will fight ferociously, to a point -- to
the death if cornered -- but when death appears imminent, and if there is an
avenue of flight, it will flee. Otherwise it stands to the death only to
protect its cubs, and not often then. Among animals ruled by the psychome,
death in defense of young seems to be more a matter of miscalculation than
intentional self sacrifice.
Also, while many humans will panic in the face of a bizarre and unfamiliar
danger, many will not panic if they are well trained and disciplined. Even
well-trained and disciplined ogres will panic
and try to flee, in the face of a sufficient threat . . .
LINGUSTIC CONSERVATISM IN 29th CENTURY SCANDINAVIA
In this paper, Scandinavia refers to the
Scandinavian Peninsula comprising the pre-plague nations of Norway and Sweden.
The Danish peninsula and islands, whose people are equally Scandinavian,
genetically and historically, has developed a very different culture, and its
language is no longer intelligible to the people of the Scandinavian
Peninsula.
The dialects of 29th century Scandinavia are mutually readily intelligible. In
fact, they differ less than the dialects of
21th century Scandinavia, and far less than those, say, of the 19th century.
Furthermore, the language changes there, over a period of more than seven
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centuries, have been remarkably modest. Thus Dr. Kumalo, having hypno-learned
21st century Swedish before departing on the First Expedition, was soon able
to converse with 29th century Swedes.
Since the plague, the Scandinavian people have dropped the neuter gender.
Further, the conjugation of most verbs has changed, becoming more regular but
also somewhat flexible, quite possibly for reasons of poesy. (The most common
pre-plague conjugation has been almost totally abandoned, perhaps also for
reasons of poesy.) And in writing, the usual 29th century spellings are more
closely phonetic. Here again, poesy seems to have been a factor, as most
post-plague Scandinavian writing has been the recording of oral poetry.
Many words have changed, but most such changes are not great. Existing
parchments show that the major vocabulary changes took place during the first
two post-plague centuries. Many changes amounted simply to the dropping of
sounds which already tended to be elided in the pre-plague languages. (Of
course, almost the total pre-plague technical and commercial vocabularies were
lost, but they were no longer relevant.)
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